BCA Presents Swing Forward While Swaying Back

Presented by Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, Bronx Council on the Arts, and the Bronx Arts Alliance

Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street, Room C-190, Bronx, NY 10451 Gallery open Tue, Wed, Thurs & Fri, 1:00 to 7:00 pm. Opening Reception: Wednesday, October 3, 5:30 to 8:30 pm Closing Reception: Wednesday, December 5, 5:30 to 8:30 pm

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PARTICIPATING ARTISTS Alicia Grullón | Blanka Amezkua | Fran Ilich | Francheska Alcantara | Walter Cruz | Yelaine Rodriguez

Curated by Amanda McDonald Crowley

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The Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, Bronx Council on the Arts and the Bronx Arts Alliance present Swing Forward While Swaying Back. Six Bronx artists realize collaborative installations that provocatively and poetically challenge their audiences. Each project simultaneously draws on rich and varied art, activist, and cultural histories to search for something beyond itself – whether in relation to economies of generosity and exchange, practical information about immigration rights, or complex conversations about cultural history. “When I was drawing connections between the work by the artists in this exhibition, I was reflecting on Elaine Scarey’s book On Beauty and Being Just,” says McDonald Crowley. “Scarey writes: ‘ is porous, open to air and light, swings forward while swaying back, scatters its stripes in all directions and delights to find itself beached beside something invented only that morning or instead standing beside an alter from three millennia ago.’ It struck me that these Bronx artists all find beauty in their objective to make work that clearly positions itself with a goal to ensure a more just future, but they all also look to their varied pasts to draw connections and to stay grounded in the present.” The artists in Swing Forward While Swaying Back collaborate with their audiences and with other artists to ‘complete’ their works. It is an exhibition that is about collaboration and invites participation.  

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Opening Reception October 3 5:30 - 8:30 pm Opening Reception with performances and interventions by Alicia Grullón, Fran Ilich with Gabriela Ceja, and Walter Cruz with Art Jones. Diego de la Vega Coffee Co-op Activations October 17, 31; November 28 5:00 - 7:00 pm Diego de la Vega Coffee Coop: Against the Walls of Capital Every other Wednesday evening, the Diego de la Vega Experimental Economies and Finance research group will host open meetings in response to a gift of 50 kgs of Zapatista coffee from Ejercito Zapatista de Liberación Nacional to find paths to organize, resist and create alternatives Against the Walls of Capital. Film Screening of Love and Labor on October 31, 5:00 - 7:00 pm with filmmakers Stephanie Andreou & Sarah Keeling Closing Reception December 5 5:30 - 8:30pm Closing Reception with performance directed by Yelaine Rodriguez with Melanie Gonzalez and Benton C Bainbridge.